New York City metro birding - bird sightings and photography from the NYC metro area and nearby

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Sterling Forest

Sterling Forest is one of the main strongholds of Golden-winged Warbler near NYC, now that the species is increasingly marginal in NJ. On May 19th I took a morning and got there at 0630, finding Golden-winged almost immediately. Other warblers present were Hooded Warbler (heard), Ovenbird (heard), Prairie Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, American Redstart, Black-and-white Warbler (heard) and a brief snippet of Cerulean Warbler song. I ignored the Cerulean while I watched a female Golden-winged forage for nest material, only to find that the Cerulean vanished rather quickly.

Other birds included several Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Baltimore and Orchard Oriole and Scarlet Tanager. Singing activity really died down after 9am, which is at least one reason I never did see any Ceruleans anywhere.

A return trip the following Sunday (May 24th) gave me a look at two Ceruleans (singing), a singing Yellow-billed Cuckoo, a fly-by Broad-winged Hawk and otherwise much the same species mix.